The parents of Madeleine McCann were so convinced they found their missing daughter they put a plane on standby to bring her home.

Twice in the last 10 years Liverpool-born Kate McCann and her husband Gerry received two reliable tip-offs over the whereabouts of Maddie.

The information was so believable the couple were convinced she would be returned home - from a farm in either Sevilla or Morocco.

Gerry and Kate McCann

A strong lead came from a former BBC reporter and their media spokesman Clarence Mitchell.

Mitchell began helping Kate and Gerry with their media presence in Portugal just weeks after Maddie’s disappearance in May 2007 from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.

He told The Telegraph: “Shortly after I arrived (in Portugal), I started to get phone calls, always at three o’clock in the morning, always the same ghostly man’s voice, repeatedly naming a farm where she was being hidden.

“The British police recorded the calls and it turned out there was indeed a farm, fitting his description exactly, near Seville, over the border in Spain.”

Officers then raided the farm but it was clear Maddie was not there.

Madeleine McCann (Image: PA Wire)

Mitchell added: “I really felt we were on to something. But she wasn’t there, and those tip-offs – like so many others that we received from hoaxers, ransom seekers, conmen and psychics – were never explained.”

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By the time a second lead came at the end of 2007, after the family had returned back to their home in Leicestershire, Mitchell was being employed as the family’s press spokesman.

Private investigators working on their behalf had found a blonde-haired girl who spoke English in a village in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

Mitchell said: “All the information coming back to us suggested heavily that it could be Madeleine, so much so that an aircraft was put on stand-by, with its engines running, waiting to fly to pick her up.”

But it soon became clear that the girl they had found was not the McCann’s missing daughter.

Kate and Gerry McCann (Image: Dominic Lipinski/PA W)

Earlier this week, Kate spoke about the heartache around the 10 year anniversary of her daughter going missing and vowed: “We will go on and never give up”.

It has almost been a decade since three-year-old Maddie vanished from the holiday apartment while her parents were dining nearby with friends.

Kate and Gerry revealed they have gifts for their missing little girl as they refuse to give up hope that she will one day return home and her bedroom at the family home in Rothley is piled high with unopened birthday and Christmas presents.

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She said there are no new appeals that the police wish to make at this moment in time and so they are keeping any media involvement to a minimum.

The statement continued: “The two themes that seem most appropriate to me as we reach this ten year mark are perseverance and gratitude: We will go on, try our hardest, never give up and make the best of the life we have.

“We consider ourselves immensely fortunate to have received the love, solidarity and support from so many kind and decent people over the last decade.

“There have been many challenges and low points along the way but the warmth, encouragement and positivity we have experienced from the ‘quiet majority’ has undoubtedly sustained us and maintained our faith in human goodness. And while that is there, there will always be hope.

“Thank you so much from all of our family. Kate and Gerry”

Maddie would now be aged 13, nearly 14.

Earlier this month, a nanny who looked after Maddie revealed how Kate and Gerry were plunged into despair and panic when the horrifying truth she had vanished sank in.